True Detective has become the theory show of the winter, and that’s never a bad thing, when it means that viewers have a complex, complicated show with which they can sink their teeth, and we haven’t had one since Breaking Bad. Even better, True Detective actually is grounded in a piece of literature with which we can study and develop our own theories. There have been some great ones this week, particularly on the identity of the Yellow King. Reddit, for instance, has lost their damn mind over it. Vulture had a nice comprehensive view of the major theories, and I even weighed in with one myself.

Then Yahoo’s TV page just comes in an ruins everything. There theory? Check out the poster:

OK, what do you see there? The top of the poster is cropped off, and moved to the bottom of the poster. In the bottom, you can see Martin Hart’s hair, which is … yellow. And it’s just the top of his hair, ergo, it’s the crown. Therefore, MARTY HART IS THE KILLER.

No.

Look, I love a good television show theory, and I’ve been known to come up with some whoppers myself, though they were at least grounded within the context of the symbols, allusions, callbacks, and references in a show. And yes, perhaps, there were entirely too many Mad Men theories based on the poster last season, but I thought we learned something from that! Like, for instance, that the advertising department probably doesn’t spend a lot of time with the writing staff working up marketing materials.